Halloweekend

It's been awhile since I posted. Life just got super hectic. And then I got sick. I've been feeling under the weather for about two weeks now, and just today Rick got sick as well. Yeesh! I had/have an awful sinus infection that I got antibiotics for, but it's still lingering. And now I have a weird pain on the left side of my face/left tooth area. I am unsure of whether it's a tooth ache (seems centered around a tooth, but when I bite on it or push on that tooth, it doesn't hurt), or if it's sinus pressure which is making my cheek/mouth area hurt. It seems coincidental, since I have a sinus infection, that it would be a tooth problem. But I better keep an eye on it. My ears are still kind of plugged, and I still sound congested, so it's not totally gone yet.

But even though I felt under the weather, I was determined to go to our Halloween party this weekend back home, since we had our costumes and everything, and I was looking forward to seeing people. We decided to go as Bill and Sookie from True Blood. I think we pulled it off quite well if I do say so myself. I was able to get the tights, apron, and shoes really cheap, and I already owned the shorts, so the two most expensive items were the wig ($20) and Merlotte's t-shirt ($30 from the HBO store online). Rick had to get a wig, sideburns, fangs, and the make-up, but was able to wear his own clothes.

Here are a few pics from Friday night:

                                                          Without make-up

                                                 He bites!

We got to see a lot of our friends, and we had a wonderful time, even though I still wasn't feeling the greatest. I got to go shopping with my mom and grandma on Saturday and got a lot of cute new clothes. Love. Then Saturday night, we were able to meet up with some other friends at Old Chicago whom we hadn't seen in forever. All in all, it was a great weekend, although it went by way too fast.

Well today's Halloween, but we never get trick-or-treaters, since we live in an apartment. I didn't even really see kids out in our neighborhood. It's not like it used to be. When I was little, it was a HUGE thing to go trick-or-treating, and virtually everyone handed out candy. There would be hundreds of kids going up and down the streets. Now it's like a ghost town. I guess it is a more unsafe world now than when I was little, which is really unfortunate. If we lived in a house, I would have passed out candy, but who knows if we even would have had any kids. We actually went out to see Paranormal Activity 3 instead tonight. We've seen each of the Paranormal movies. This was probably the best of the three. I don't find them terrifying, so much as jumpy and funny. We were the only people laughing in the theater!

On our plate next is deep cleaning this apartment, which desperately needs it. I also have to clean out my closet and take some clothes to the resale shop. Our redecoration is at a standstill until I get the big prints of our wedding photos. The canvas just came in according to our photographer, so now we're waiting on a big one I ordered of our wedding party. I want to do a cool photo collage in our bedroom. Otherwise, it's just work and homework. I have 1.5 months left until my Masters graduation and I am counting down the days! What's stupid is that it's on a Wed. night though. I wish they would have made it on a Friday, so I didn't have work the next morning. Oh well.

We're off to watch our DVR of House, and then it's bed early.

Randomness

This past week has gone by in a blur for us. It's been extremely busy in our house. For me, I've had a ton of school work and grading to get done. Rick had this weekend off work, but we ended up spending most of it (like 5 hours each day) at Barnes & Noble while I graded papers. I haven't even started my homework for this week yet...no time! Rick has been wonderful helping out around the house while I bogged down with work. The living room and dining room now look super spiffy. I have to find some time to clean out my closet though. It is seriously bad. I don't even want to take a "before" picture of it, it is so bad. That's my goal for this weekend. Since the quarter is now over, I shouldn't have as much grading to get done and can possibly have an actual weekend.

On top of it, I'm coming down with a case of the yuckies. I have a scratchy/sore throat, some sinus congestion and just an overall feeling of the blahs. I got light-headed randomly at work today and started hearing ringing in my ears. It also doesn't help that I was only able to sleep for about 3 hours last night off and on for whatever reason. I am trying to take it easy tonight, while still getting my homework done. This week is parent/teacher conferences, so it's going to be very busy with not a lot of free time.

On a happier note, we are starting to plan ahead for our one year trip. We both really want to take a vacation somewhere each year for our anniversary because we both love traveling and want to do it more often. I don't know if we'll ever be able to top Hawaii though. That was a dream trip for us.

Right now, we're looking into all-inclusives (AI's) in Mexico. We had thought about doing San Francisco/northern Cali wineries but don't know if we can afford to do it the way we want to right now. We also thought about cruises, which are affordable. They are a great way to see a lot of islands you wouldn't otherwise be able to. However, I am unsure if I am a cruise person. The idea of being on a boat, even a big boat, for that long kind of skeeves me out. I think I'd get bored and go stir crazy. I'd rather spend my time at an actual location.

So far, our top choice is the all-inclusive Dreams Los Cabos.

It looks gorgeous, and we were able to find some good airfaire+ hotel deals on Travelocity. I think we're going to talk to a travel agent after the holidays to possibly book a trip for July.


Anyone been to Mexico and/or an AI before? Any tips, suggestions, or advice?


Well I am going to do homework/rest, so I hopefully feel better and my eye stops twitching from stress. The husband is running out to get me a pumpkin pie blizzard because I saw a commercial and it sounded really good (like I need those calories!) and we're getting ready to watch House. Hope you all have a good week :)

Our Lovely Little Fall Weekend

This weekend was our staycation that I mentioned in our last post. With all the stress of work and school and keeping up the house, we definitely needed some time away, if only for a night. Like I mentioned, we splurged for a nicer suite that we normally would get. Well when we arrived there Saturday, we found out they upgraded us to a premiere suite! Oh my gosh it was huge! When looking for our room, we reached the end of a hallway and didn't find our room number. Then Rick was like "Um, I think it's behind you," and instead of a regular door, it was two huge double doors that said "Admiral's Retreat" on the outside haha!

And retreat it was. This was the largest room we've ever stayed in. It had a closed-in porch, fireplace in the living room, whirlpool with TV in the bathroom, full kitchen and separate bedroom. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We took advantage of the whirlpool and the fireplace (it was unseasonably warm here, so we turned the air down really low, so it'd be cool enough to use the fireplace ha!) We did go out to dinner and to the gambling boat (I walked away $25 richer thankyouverymuch!). We also walked down by the marina and tried to get some pics of the skyline at night.

But because we had such a nice room, we wanted to stay in and use it, so we rented a couple movies through Redbox. 

Stay far, far away from a movie called Bending All the Rules. It was marketed as a new release, and it had Bradley Cooper in it. The synopsis sounded good. However, we didn't look at the year it was actually released ('02), and it was seriously the worst movie I've ever watched. I even think it was worse than that one thriller I picked out a few years ago that was actually in German. We shut it off within twenty minutes (Rick was pushing to turn it off after five!) Luckily, we also rented Dinner for Schmucks, which we had seen before, but it was at least watchable!

Sunday, we got some stuff done around the apartment, including putting up our fall decorations outside!

 
The eyeballs hanging down actually light up and change color at night.

I love fall and all the colors, so I decided to take some shots of pretty fall foliage around our neighborhood and also up on Grandview Drive where we went for a jog this evening.

I love going up on Grandview. It's a street that has a gorgeous view of the river and is lined with humongous houses! I dream of living up there someday.

Today I had off work for Columbus Day, but it didn't seem like it, what with all the paper-grading and homework that took place. Blah. I made myself run tonight with Rick because I desperately needed to. I felt good after I did it, but I need to get back into a routine. And start eating better again. That's our goal in the upcoming weeks.

But now it's back to the grind. I have such a busy week with it being the end of the quarter and having projects for Grad school. This weekend we don't have any big plans except for getting things accomplished. I hope the weather starts feeling more fall-like too. I want to wear my fall clothes and not shorts! That's so wrong!

We hope you had a lovely weekend as well.

We love October!

October is one of, possibly my most, favorite months of the year. You get the crisp fall weather and leaves changing without any of the blustery cold, gray days in Nov. when the leaves are already fallen and everything starts to seem really bleak and blah. December is OK because of Christmas.

This month will be a busy one in our household!  We still want to finish some apartment projects, but they are coming along. Last weekend, we got some of our wedding frames filled with photos and hung up. Today, we plan on taking down our summer stuff on the balcony and getting our fall/Halloween decorations out there. We have a string of eyeball lights we bought last year that we put out on the railing. We also have a glittery skull, a skeleton, some pumpkins, and a fake headstone. I love Halloween! It means a bunch of scary movies on TV, which are some of my favorite, and I love dressing up.

We're heading back home this year for the Boo Bash again. We decided for our costumes this year, we are going as Bill and Sookie from True Blood.

 We went to a Halloween store yesterday, where I bought a long blonde wig and Rick got....wait for it....an Edward wig (as in Twilight!) He is not going as Edward, but it was the only short, dark brown wig they had. Haha. However, he thinks he needs a shaggier one with sideburns, so he might take it back and look for something else.

I ordered a Merlotte's t-shirt (that looks like the one in the photo) from the HBO store. I should still have my waitress apron from when I waitressed in college, so I'll use that. Then I'll just wear denim shorts (with nude tights because it will be cold) with white tennis shoes and I'm good to go. We also bought some fake blood so I can make bite marks on my neck. Rick bought fangs he will wear, as well as some white make-up so we can make him look pale. I'm so excited! I'll be sure to post pics of us in costume.

Next weekend, we're also taking a little staycation for my long weekend. We didn't buy each other wedding presents. We said we'd rather take that money and go away for the weekend sometime. There is this hotel around here called Stoney Creek Inn which we just love. It's so cute and quaint. We've stayed there a few times. This time we decided to splurge on a really nice room, which we never do. We always go for the cheapest when we go somewhere. But this time we're getting the theme suite that has a fireplace and whirlpool tub in the room!

 Because they're each a different theme, this may not be exactly what ours looks like, but close. We also got a two person whirlpool tub, so I think ours might be a little bigger. We're staying there Sat. night and plan on just relaxing, eating at a nice restaurant nearby, and possibly (if it's not too cold) walking along the marina down there to watch the sunset. Work and school have been so crazy lately, it'll be nice to get away for an evening.

This weekend has been good so far. Rick got the whole weekend off for once. Last night, we went to see the Untamed Shrews at the comedy club here. They are a pair of women comediennes, and they are hilarious! I saw them once a couple years ago, and when I heard they were coming back, I told Rick I had to take him. I haven't laughed so hard in awhile. Today is work day unfortunately. I brought home a ton of papers to grade, plus I have to do homework. We need to clean up around the apartment and get our decorations out. Tonight though, if we have time, we're going to go see 50/50, that new movie about the guy with cancer. It looks really good.

Also, exciting news! We got a three month free trial of Showtime. Which means......DEXTER! 

It starts tonight, and we will be watching. Our favorite show is back :)

Hope you are all having a good start to October! We'll try to update more often and post some pics of our place when the remodel is totally done.

Getting settled in

Our apartment has pretty much been a disaster since we returned from the honeymoon. All of our wedding frames sat empty in a corner of the living room. The Hawaii photo albums we bought sat unfilled on the floor. There was just random crap everywhere from redecorating, piles of things we didn't want anymore or needed to take to Goodwill. And we were sick of it, but never had time to catch up on anything. With me working, Rick working, my Grad school, social engagements on weekends, and trying to work out and cook, our days were pretty much filled.

We vowed to get some crap together this weekend. Rick had today off, so we went to the Apple Orchard for a little fun. We got there at the perfect time; there wasn't even a wait to get in. We stocked up on all sorts of {unhealthy} goodies: caramel apples (to be fair, I got regular apples too), apple cider donuts, apricot preserves, and caramel corn nuggets, which taste just like caramel popcorn, except light and airier. I've already dug into that bag! Then we stopped at Home Depot, so Rick could get some stuff to (finally) hang some pictures.

I should mention that our Saturday night was spent picking out a ton of pics to print at Walgreen's. We were literally there for about 1.5 hours. Before we went, we wrote down every pic we needed for different frames and albums and what size we needed. We meticulously went through and picked out each picture, one by one. While we were waiting for them to develop, we decided we might as well get our flu shots, since we were there. It was a rockin' Saturday night, let me tell you. Flu vaccines and printing pictures at a Walgreens.

It took awhile, but Rick hung two of our big frames this afternoon! One was a photo montage frame of a bunch of wedding pics, and one is our photo mat frame that we had our guests sign at our reception. They both look great! We also filled a bunch of stand-alone frames, and I started putting honeymoon pictures in our Hawaii albums. We still have a lot of crap left out that we need to find a home for, but we are getting there, slowly but surely. We also need to put our fall decorations out on our balcony and toss the dead flowers that currently reside there from this summer. I don't know about you, but I feel very stressed when my house is a mess. I hate coming home and being here when there's stuff all over, so it feels good to finally get the clean-up process started. Now my closet is a whole other story....

We made a decision on the house I posted about last week. We are holding off on moving until after the holidays. Rick was called back for a second interview for that job I posted about (4 are called back out of 12 candidates), so if he gets it, we will be looking at places in a whole different price point. It is also hectic to move. I would much rather deal with that once my Grad school is over than right now, when things are so crazy. Plus, I just ordered return address labels and checks with our current address! I am NOT re-ordering all new ones so soon lol. So that's what we decided about that. We'll have one more Christmas at this place, and after the New Year, start looking again.

We have been doing better about working out/cooking at home. We cooked at home this entire week, and even had leftovers last night instead of going out. We are looking for good new fall recipes to try, so if you have any, pass them this way.

Something I want to try (though Rick is skeptical) is Dough-less Pizza. 

It's basically a cauliflower crust pizza. It looks good to me! It might be weird to eat pizza without the dough, but I would be up for giving it a try. Would you eat dough-less pizza? What toppings would you put on it to keep it healthy? If we end up making it, I'll do a full review on here.

I should go help straighten up the place. I will try to post more often; life is just very hectic right now! Hope all our friends are doing well :)

Indecision....

So this morning we went to look at a house for rent. As some of you know, we've been wanting to get out of apartment living for awhile now. I have been living in apartments since I was 20 years old and am ready for either a stand-alone house or a duplex, attached on just one side.

Our must-haves:

• in-house laundry
• at least a one car garage
• 2 bedrooms
• yard/outdoor entertaining area
• allow us to paint
• allow pets (for our future dog!)

Our wish list (We'd really LIKE to have):

• three bedrooms
• 2 baths
• 2 car garage
• dining room/area
• walk-in closet
• attached garage

We found a cute house for rent on a cul-de-sac and checked it out this morning. Now we are completely undecided. It has a lot of what we're looking for: hardwood floors, huge yard, they allow pets, two bedrooms upstairs and one that could be used as a bedroom downstairs, brand new washer/dryer, two car (detached) garage and in a safe neighborhood.


However, the closet space really worries us. I currently have a walk-in, plus Rick has a pretty large closet plus we have a large hall closet. This place only has three small closets. I honestly don't think my clothes alone would fit in them! It also doesn't have a separate dining room, so our kitchen table would have to go in the kitchen, and we'd have to put one of the sides down and only put three chairs around it, as one side would be flush with the wall.


Those are our two biggest concerns. Otherwise, we really like it. The rent they're asking is a little high, but they said it was negotiable. So now we have to weigh all the pros and cons and make a decision soonish (move-in date would be Oct. 15!!!!) We'd also have to break our current lease (which he had planned on doing when we moved).


I'm not asking for you to tell us what to do, as I know this is a decision only we can make. But would these cons be a deal-breaker for you? What are your must-haves in a living space?


Here are some pics of the house:

Thoughts on marriage....

How come so many of the phraseology we use to denote marriage has a negative connotation? Getting hitched. Taking the plunge. The old ball and chain. True, it is a huge decision not to be taken lightly. And lots of couples go through a lot of stress and worry when deciding to "settle down" or take that next step. For Rick and me, it wasn't that big of a deal.

I don't mean for that to sound insensitive. But when you have been together as long as we were, plus you lived together beforehand, most everything you could know about the other person, you already do. Sure, marriage brings with it legality. Now if I get sick of you, I can't just run away to the nearest Holiday Inn. Well, I could, but legally I'm still tied to you. It also might bring joint checking accounts, new last names (which are a pain in the butt, by the way), and joint holidays that you now divvy up between families. It might bring talk of children, or in our case, pets. But most of all, I think it just brings about learning how to live your usual, boring, everyday lives with each other without totally driving each other crazy. So here is just our experience in a nutshell and what we found most important to learn before getting hitched.

1. Learn each others' little quirks. When we first moved in together, Rick and I had an issue with towels. I grew up washing a towel after every individual use. Rick grew up re-using a towel for the entire week, which grossed me out. We drove each other nuts with our opposite towel ideas. This seems trivial, but it's one example of how we learned to compromise. We don't use towels for the whole week, but I have slowly learned to re-use them once (maybe twice) and not freak out about one hanging over the towel rack in the bathroom. Rick has accepted that we will do laundry more than he is used to. I'm glad we got that sorted out before we got married.

2. FINANCES are a big one, especially if you are making different salaries and/or have different ideas about spending and saving. I don't blow money, but I am not as frugal as Rick. If I see a pair of shoes I ZOMG have to have, and it won't empty my checking account, I usually buy them. Rick wears his t-shirts until they're practically threadbare. If I have one piece of advice (and again, take all this with a grain of salt seeing as we've only been married a month and a half), it would be to get your crap in order regarding money. Do you want separate or joint accounts? Do you have to discuss all purchases with each other before doing them? How much do you want to save? What are your financial goals in life (buying a house, vacation fund, etc.)? We may only have been married a short while, but we have been a couple for almost 7 years and have had many many money discussions over the years, some where we got frustrated and it didn't go anywhere, some where we had a good talk and accomplished something. We are currently on the same page money-wise and it has made the transition into marriage so much easier.

3. You should probably talk about kids. Luckily, we haven't been hounded with the "When are you having kids?" question since getting married. All in due time, I'm sure. We have both decided we are still way too selfish and have way too much other stuff we want to do right now before having kids, but we definitely want a dog as soon as we live somewhere that allows one.  We're not sure if we want kids in the future or not. But we are both on the same page with that. If one of us definitely wanted them and one of us didn't, I would assume that would lead to problems and/or resentment in the future, which would be not fun.

4. Remember what you fell in love with. I feel like our honeymoon period only lasted for the literal honeymoon. Because when we came back, the "real world" slapped us in the face rather quickly. I had a bunch of Grad school homework to get finished in a week, plus planning a new class for work. Rick started working right away again. We had a ton of wedding gifts we had no room for, our apartment was a mess, I was struggling to get back on track with eating well and working out, and we were just exhausted and missing vacation. It felt like normal life, like what it was like before the wedding and fantasy land. That's OK. Real life happens. Amidst the bills, work, car issues, grocery shopping, and cleaning, it's good to remember what you fell in love with when you first started dating that made you want to marry the other person. It's good to still hold hands on date nights, open the door for your significant other (guys), have picnics on your living room floor, go out to movies, dance in your living room, and give each other surprise gifts "just because." No, those things don't pay the bills, but they make your life fun and enjoyable and keep your marriage alive and fun.

So, we are by no means marriage experts. For pete's sake, it hasn't even been two months. And I know dating for 7 years doesn't make us experts either. But those were just a few things we learned along the way that make our marriage easier (so far). I don't know why marriage as an institution has started getting sort of a bad rap. It could be the divorce rate, I suppose, but most things in life that are worth it involve some risk-taking, some sense of the unknown. I think a lot of it (the way it's portrayed in movies and TV shows as being boring, the romance-ender, etc.) is a mixture of humor and the real-life doldrums dragging it down. The thing is, those real life issues will be there, whether you are single or married. When you're married, you have someone else to go through the doldrums with, which makes it a little bit more bearable. I also think some people enter into marriage with false preconceived notions. They think problems they had pre-marriage will automatically go away with the marriage license and wedding bands, but they are wrong. I got angry at Rick's driving way before we got married, and I still can't stand his driving. Our wedding didn't make that go away, but that's OK. I didn't expect it to.

So if you are thinking about getting married, I'd encourage you to think about it long and hard, but not be scared off by how it's portrayed so often in the media. And if you are married and have some great, awesome advice to share with us, let me know! I don't mean for this post to come out sounding like "Marriage is so much fun! Give it a try. It's so EASY." In fact, I hope to convey the opposite. It's hard. I know that just by the short time I've been married. Nay, I think relationships are hard, and marriage is just seen as harder because it's legally binding for the most part (doesn't sound romantic when you put it that way). But in my opinion, it's worth working for. Both relationships and marriage are worth working for. Especially when you figure out what the heck to do with your towels.